Does Cold Email Still Work During COVID–19?
It is a highly competitive world we live in, with millions of products and service providers catering to the ever-growing needs of people. COVID- 19 has crippled the economy and sent us all in reeling in a downward spiral in isolation. Many employees have been laid off to compensate for the losses faced by enterprises and leaders are searching for innovative ways to find new clients.
While new methods are being experimented to expand a business, let’s review an age-old method for finding potential clients – Cold emails.
Introduction to Cold Emails
Cold emails are emails sent to a target customer base without any prior interaction between the enterprise and the customers. This advertises the products to new customers and captivates their attention to the services provided. It is an age-old technique which has reaped great benefits for startups and established corporation in expanding their products.
Cold mails replaced cold calls as they were out-phased from conventional marketing techniques due to lack of efficiency. They ushered the era of digital marketing and soon marketing professionals shifted their focus to cold emails to find new leads and prospects in marketing. In contrast to cold calls, it allowed bulk access to multiple clients at the same time, increasing efficiency and access by the sales team (Hubspot).
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The Art and Its Process
The secret behind a successful cold mail campaign lies in innovation and creativity that lies in scripting the mail. A short crispy email catered personally for each client or at least each group in a target sector will find a response.
A clumsy long mail will often leave the clients bored and uninterested. It is essential to customize the mails personally rather than sending out generic content in bulk hoping for a response. While cold emails found a huge rate of success pre-COVID-19, it has found a mixed response during this pandemic.
Cold emails are crafted to bring out clients with the requirements of specific services and products. They pique the interests of customers to reach out to the marketing executives to know more about the services offered.
COVID 19 has led to the migration of work environment to homes and employees are burdened with excessive workloads under high pressure from superiors. This has resulted in neglect towards emails and email campaigns for services as people are not in a position of economic freedom to afford luxuries and expansion of the business.
COVID- 19 Scenario
The market for pharmaceutical and medical products has blasted open with the onset of pandemic and these sectors have extensively advertised on social media and by cold mails. The phobia associated with COVID has encouraged people to hoard day to day products, medical equipment and hygiene products for their families. They have become basic amenities for life and emails have created health and safety awareness while also popularizing their product agendas.
This brings an emphasis on the basic principle of marketing which has prevailed during this ordeal too. The market is always wide open for the right product and service at the right time. Cold mails have bridged the gap between the medical suppliers and the non-medical community in providing access to both groups of people for mutual gains.
Marketing professionals have relied on pure mathematical proof to draft their methods for cold email campaigns. Statistics collected over a specific period have revealed the ideal properties of a cold email that adds to the possibility of customers responding to it.
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Statistical Analysis
Emails personalized for each customer have brought 17% response in comparison to generic bulk emails which have an average of 7% response. This brings to light to the importance of personalization of cold emails and the requirement of research to personalize them. Follow up sequences are a must for email campaigns to cover the target customer base.
A follow-up sequence of 4 to 7 emails has found favourable outcomes from a target group. Simple emails gather better responses than complexly worded emails as it conveys the message easier to the readers.
Emails written at third-grade levels receive 53% response as opposed to those written at the college level which received 39% response in a study conducted on an email campaign with 183 mails. The statistics reveal that cold mails still a prudent way to market your products to improve sales, provided you find the appropriate niche to market them.
Conclusion
Sales is a continuously evolving process with no single absolute method to follow. The trends keep changing with times and marketing teams must keep in touch with the current trends to ensure success. Cold emails have diversified the target population enabling identification of new sectors to explore marketing potential.
This crucial tool, like all other marketing tools, needs careful understanding and finesse to achieve results. A casual approach to email campaigns without adequate homework and dedication will downgrade its potential irrespective of the market scenario. COVID-19 is a desperate time and let’s all need to gear up with innovation and creativity to produce our desperate measures.